A Texas man will spend decades in prison for the tragic deaths of his one-month-old twins, who suffered fatal injuries after he violently shook and beat them. The infants, described as “crying and fussy throughout the night,” succumbed to their injuries.

Fernando Vega, aged 23, recently admitted guilt to charges of injury to a child with serious bodily harm, resulting in the deaths of the twins, Massail and Mirena Vega. Consequently, he received a 40-year prison sentence. His partner, Angelina Calderon, also 23, faces similar charges and is scheduled for a court appearance on March 5.

According to the arrest affidavit, Vega found the twins unresponsive at their Houston residence around 11 a.m. on October 4, 2023. In a state of panic, he contacted Calderon.

“They are not waking up,” Vega reported to Calderon, adding, “They’re not doing anything.”

In response, Calderon promptly contacted emergency services by dialing 911.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Calderon allegedly told detectives she last interacted with the babies shortly after midnight when she went to bed. Vega said he cared for the twins during the night, calling them “fussy.” He put them to bed around 6 a.m., according to officers. Calderon said they were still sleeping when she woke up around 8 a.m. and Vega dropped her off at work around 10:30 a.m. The twins’ grandmother watched the babies during that time, according to the document.

Initially, police found no serious traumatic injuries on the infants.

But an autopsy told a disturbing tale. Doctors found the infants were extremely malnourished and suffered traumatic injuries on three separate occasions, according to the affidavit. Calderon told cops that despite the babies being born prematurely, she never took them to any checkup appointments with doctors, detectives wrote. The twins were also dehydrated.

One infant had contusions on the forehead, torso, feet, and arms, along with fractures of the left femur and multiple ribs, the affidavit said. The other infant also had bruises to the forehead and arm, along with head, clavicle, and bilateral rib fractures, the autopsy determined. Those injuries were in various stages of healing, which suggested they happened during three separate incidents, authorities said.

The medical examiner determined both twins died from multiple blunt force injuries and the manner of death was homicide. Vega and Calderon intentionally inflicted the injuries and should have sought medical care, detectives wrote.

“This is a very, very tragic, heartbreaking scene,” Houston police Assistant Chief Patricia Cantu told reporters. “Obviously the family is devastated.”